Israel carries out air strike in Gaza: army

Israeli aircraft attacked a target in the southern Gaza Strip on Saturday, the army said, and also closed the goods crossing between the Palestinian enclave and the Jewish state.

Israel “targeted a terror infrastructure using fighter jets in the southern Rafah region, adjacent to the Egypt-Gaza Strip border,” an army statement said.

“The Hamas terror organisation is accountable for all activity in and from the Gaza Strip,” it said.

Palestinian security sources in Gaza said nobody was wounded in the Israeli strike.

Earlier Saturday, Israel’s defence ministry said the Kerem Shalom goods crossing between Gaza and Israel near Rafah would be closed from Sunday “until further notice”.

A defence ministry spokeswoman would say only that the rare move came following “security assessments”.

Cross-border violence between Israel and Gaza has increased since US President Donald Trump’s December 6 decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, a move that has angered Palestinians who see the city as the capital of their future state.

Dozens of projectiles from Gaza have since targeted southern Israel, and 16 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces, 14 in clashes and two in a retaliatory air strike on Gaza.